Grant-Lee Phillips Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff LP

TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the December 2020 Issue of The Absolute Sound!

Grant-Lee Phillips's latest album, Lightning, Show Us Your Stuff, is a turbulent and highly musical rumination that finds the veteran singer-songwriter at his most inspired. His tenth solo release bears the markings of his prolific output, a melodic prowess and an ear for lyric in everyday conversation. The album is grown from the same rich soil that Phillips's long career, from Grant Lee Buffalo to his solo work has sprang from. The result is a beautifully human musical tapestry.

The warm, live on the floor, instrumental bed is the perfect support for Phillips's inimitable voice. This spontaneous approach has become a tradition among his solo works. This record is supported by peerless drummer, Jay Bellerose (whose many credits include Raising Sand by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant) and bassist Jennifer Condos (heard on Bruce Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad and other classics).

Singer-songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips is at his best when he's confessional, and his new album is confessional to the core... This set of poetic, mostly personal, and acoustic-based ballads cuts to the quick. At 56, he's defiant about aging ('Ain't Done Yet'), mired in self-doubt ('Drawing the Head') and depression ('Lowest Low'), and searching for a safe harbor ('Leave a Light On')... Yet these songs aren't pedantic or self-pitying - he feels your pain and offers solace. Maybe it is just a fever dream, as Phillips sings in the closer, 'Walking In My Sleep', but his beautiful despair is a soothing, if curious, balm.